Melbourne: Teen rampage was just ‘kids being stupid’

The group of up to 100 Sudanese youths who damaged property and threw rocks at police cars in Melbourne’s northwest this week were acting like other Australian kids, a community leader says.

Police were forced to call the riot squad and the air wing to a park in Taylors Hill as a planned fight over a failed relationship ­escalated into violence on Wednesday evening.

Residents say they were called “white trash” and threatened, and that police told them to “stay inside and lock the doors”.

Federation of South Sudanese Associations chairman Kenyatta Dei Wal said the youths’ behaviour was “the kind of thing that most young people do”. “(It was) young people who are just behaving as young people and making stupid choices,” he said.